Journey Home Project

About the Project

The Journey Home is an ongoing project at MCC that acknowledges the presence of veteran students and the value and meaning of their experience in the classroom and community. It does so through a selection of unique courses, memoir writing, and educational partnerships focused on the veteran experience, particularly the transition from soldier to civilian. The Journey Home courses include both veteran and non-veteran students, providing each with the opportunity to express his or her unique voice and help shape public discourse on war and soldier-citizenship.

About the Learning Community (Twofer) Courses

• Journey Home (Course 1)

  American History II (HIS 172)
  American Literature 1865-Present (ENG 261)

  This modern American History and American Literature pairing focuses on the veteran experience. Students read numerous personal accounts of soldiers-letters, memoirs, diaries, poetry, fiction-in order to encounter war through the eyes and minds of those who've experienced it. They also keep a semester-long journal that includes responses to readings, class discussions and concepts, and accounts and reflections of their own experiences as military, civilian, or both. The course is particularly welcoming to veterans (combat or otherwise), whose voices and experiences contribute to and even help shape the curriculum. It's the vet voices that help bring a greater life and authenticity to the course.

• Journey Home (Course 2)

  Western Civilization I (HIS 131)
  World Literature to 1650 (ENG 253)

  This Ancient Civilization and World Literature pairing will engage works of literature and history to explore the warrior-centric nature of many cultures. Indeed, the prevalence of war in so much ancient literature and history is indicative of its high cultural value. It is the soldier-hero ideal that defines the ancient world's highest literary traditions.

  One of the unique projects in this course will challenge the student to assess the place of soldiers in contemporary life and culture, to consider what the modern soldier-ideal is, and to measure this against the ancient ideal as well as their own experience. The course is particularly welcoming to veterans (combat or otherwise), whose voices and experiences contribute to and even help shape the curriculum. It's the vet voices that help bring a greater life and authenticity to the course.

Mark Waters and Todd Culp facilitate a speaker series event

Audience at student-veterans panel

Women veterans' speaker panel, female student veterans shared their "journey home" from military service

Class visit to Chicago's Pritzker Military Museum

Mark Waters and Todd Culp at Chicago's Pritzker Military Museum

Visiting Speaker Series: Professor and Vietnam Vet James Brask, Ph.D.

The origin of The Journey Home Project »

Students on The Journey Home course »

Their Stories »

Contact Us

The Journey Home has been made possible by a grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities: Humanities Initiatives at Community Colleges.

Any views, findings, conclusions, or recommendations expressed in this {article, book, exhibition, film, program, database, report, Web resource}, do not necessarily represent those of the National Endowment for the Humanities.